A primary goal of online social networking systems is to create an environment in which users can interact with each other, for example, by communicating, sharing files, and concurrently viewing the same online content. Some social networking systems are open to people who are members of the same preexisting groups or organizations to create closed communities, whereas other social networking systems are open to all users to create open communities. As users interact in a social networking environment, they naturally form relationships. Most social networking systems allow a pair of users to expressly declare their shared relationship to the system through a confirmation process that requires both users to confirm the relationship declaration. Other social networking systems allow users to unilaterally declare their relationships with others. The explicit relationship declarations oftentimes are used to implement privacy controls that restrict who can view a user's profile and who can communicate with the user.
Each user of a social networking system typically creates a profile that identifies the user's characteristics and preferences. A social networking system typically does not verify a user's assertions about his or her identity characteristics (e.g., name, gender, age, profession, or geographic location). As a result, there is a significant risk that users will misrepresent who they are to the system and to those with whom they interact. This risk tends to discourage social and commercial interactions that rely on trust. Social networking systems have attempted to ameliorate this risk by deriving trust ratings from information about the reputations of users or commercial vendors and providing these trust ratings to other users for use in deciding how to conduct their interactions with others in the online social environment.
What are needed are systems and methods for managing interactions in a network communications environment that expand opportunities for forming relationships and that encourage trusting interactions among participants.